Here’s How You Can Prepare Your Kids For Back-To-School Time

With Summer Break coming to an end in more or less than a month, you and your kids might require some time getting used to the school routine again. Summer time was relaxing – kids didn’t have to get up early, didn’t have lots of homework, you didn’t have to worry about picking them up or dropping them off, there was more time to engage in fun activities with your kids and you may have relaxed your parental control app a little bit, but the school year is just about to start and it’s time to gear up, so the back to school transition can be as smooth as possible for you and your kids. FamilyTime is all about helping parents with good parenting and let’s not forget what Confucius states, “Success depends upon previous preparation, and without such preparation there is sure to be a failure.” Hence, we’ve jotted down a few ways to help you get all prepped for a successful back to school transition! 

Time To Have The Talk

Your kids might be having so much fun just chilling and hanging out with their friends and getting more screen time that they might have forgotten when the summer break is coming to an end. That’s fine. Just remind them at least once a week that their summer break is coming to an end and that you guys will need to work as a team to get ready for school. This weekly reminder will help them get mentally prepared for the tiring and hectic school year ahead. 

Make sure you sit down with your kids and talk with them about how they feel about school reopening. Every kid has a different reaction – some may feel excited, some may just say that they feel excited and may be hiding how they actually feel while others may tell you they’re nervous and all of these reactions are normal. Tell your kids that feeling anxiety on the reopening of school is normal. Ask your kids if they have any plans for the new school year, if they’re thinking of joining any clubs or making new friends. Be available for your kids to talk with especially during the first week of school, so your kids can tell you how they’re feeling, how well they’re adjusting and see what you can do to help them. 

Time To Fix The Sleep-Wake Cycle

School mornings are super stressful, especially after having such a relaxing sleep-wake routine during the summer break. A smart parenting tip is that you set the school sleep-wake routine in advance, hence you and your kids will have enough time to get used to waking up early in the morning for school. This is where the use of parental control apps to limit screen time may prove to be invaluable! Using the limit screen time feature, you can restrict their phone access during night time, so they sleep peacefully and on time without any digital distractions and wake up early, fresh and active. Doing so will help you set a healthy bedtime and wake-up routine. 

It’s always a good idea to make routine changes slowly and gradually. Telling your kids that from today on they’ll be sleeping two hours earlier because school is reopening in two weeks is only going to make them loathe school. Demoting bedtime 10 to 15 minutes every few days till your kids are comfortable with the school sleep-wake routine is the key here! You and your children will hardly notice it and you guys will mentally and physically be all set for school. 

Time To Buy School Supplies Together

To enkindle some back to school excitement, take your kids for school supplies shopping. With school reopening soon, there are a lot of exciting sales on school supplies. Let your kids pick out their own backpacks, lunch boxes, new clothes etc. and they’ll surely be excited to go back to school with all their new stuff. 

Allowing them to shop for their supplies and some extras gives them a sense that they have a say in the situation which kids generally enjoy. Speaking of sales, FamilyTime is also offering an exciting back to school discount on their parental control app, so you can start this school year with better protection of your kids with features such as app blocking, screen time limit, internet filtering etc. 

Time To Re-implement The School Routine

Okay, so what exactly is school bringing this year? If we were to roughly list the major pieces, it would be something like: early morning alarms, a race to pack lunch boxes, ever growing stacks of papers containing homework and worksheets, parent-teacher conferences, soccer practice, events and activities and a hectic routine in general. In other words, school is always going to be the same and to start practicing the back-to-school routine beforehand is always a good idea. A week before school starts, rehearse waking your kids up early in the morning like you would during school days, make them breakfast and fix lunch for them that would be eaten around the same time. Following a routine in advance will help you avoid a chaotic first week of school. If your child is going to a new school, try visiting the school and showing your child around if the school permits. 

Time To ‘Disconnect’ Them 

A lot of kids spend their summers glued to their smartphones and tablets surfing the web all day long. Now that school is reopening, they should be prepared to become productive and active and spend less time on their smart gadgets. To get them school-ready, busy them with books or e-books and other productive things to do. Using a parental control app such as FamilyTime, set screen time limits and using the App Blocker feature block useless, addictive social networking apps and games. Allow your kids their daily app usage, but encourage them to spend their online time productively and safely. Again, with a good parental control app, you can use an internet filter to ensure their online safety and productivity. 

Happy parenting 🙂